NEW: “Ashley Hinson Asked Iowans for Gas Money for Her $92,000 Bus Tour”
Heartland Signal: “Campaign Finance Records Show Her Campaign Spent a Combined $92,000 on Bus Charter and Logistics Expenses”
Heartland Signal: “The Charter Company, Premiere Transportation, Advertises Luxury Coach Rentals Featuring ‘Modern Comfort’ and ‘VIP Executive Coaches’”
DES MOINES – A new report from Heartland Signal has revealed that amid record high diesel prices from Ashley Hinson’s seven votes to continue the war in Iran, Hinson is spending $92,000 for a “luxury” bus tour.
Earlier this month as Hinson was kicking off her bus tour, which was “framed […] as a way to promote lower costs,” she begged Iowans to chip in a “little gas money.”
This latest report puts those comments under fresh scrutiny and “raises questions about who is being asked to bear the costs [of the Iran war] and who is accountable for them” as Iowa families and farmers are being forced to pay more at the pump.
Missed the report? See below for more key highlights:
Heartland Signal: Hinson asks Iowans for ‘gas money’ as fuel costs climb amid Iran war
- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson is asking Iowans to chip in “a little gas money” for her statewide campaign bus tour as fuel prices climb, household budgets tighten and the Iran War adds pressure to energy costs across the state.
- Hinson made the request during a bus tour stop in Fort Dodge earlier this month, asking for donors to “help give us a little gas money for our bus.”
- Federal Election Commission campaign finance records show her campaign spent a combined $92,000 on bus charter and logistics expenses: $87,000 for charter services and $5,000 for logistics.
- The charter company, Premiere Transportation, advertises luxury coach rentals featuring “modern comfort” and “VIP executive coaches.”
- The “gas money” request comes as Hinson faces criticism over her votes against congressional efforts to end U.S. military involvement in the conflict. The Iran War has contributed to higher energy prices by disrupting oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global shipping route. Reuters reported that renewed U.S.-Iran fighting and attacks on tankers intensified concerns about energy supply disruptions. Hinson voted seven times seven times against war powers resolutions, six of them on Iran.
- The appeal is particularly pointed in a state where rising fuel costs affect not only household budgets but also one of Iowa’s most important industries. As of Oct. 23, Iowa’s average price for regular gasoline was $4.18 per gallon, up about 46% from $2.86 a year earlier, according to AAA. Diesel averaged $6.17 per gallon, compared with $3.41 a year earlier, an increase of about 81%.
- Dan Pedersen, a Republican, runs a 10,000-acre farm in Underwood, Iowa, where he grows corn and soybeans. He also sells about 20,000 cattle a year. His operation employs eight full-time workers and four part-time employees. During harvest, his farm burns through about 800 gallons of diesel a day.
- The financial strain is beginning to change what he expects to be able to afford. Pedersen typically trades in one of his combines each year, rotating older equipment out of his operation. This year, he said, the additional fuel expenses and surcharges could prevent him from buying a new one at the end of the season.
- A year ago, when diesel cost a little more than $3 a gallon, that fuel bill ran about $2,400 a day. Now, at $6 a gallon, it has doubled to $4,800.
- Hinson’s campaign has framed the tour as a way to promote lower costs. But asking Iowans to help pay for a $92,000 campaign transportation effort, while farmers face sharply higher diesel and fertilizer costs linked in part to a war she has declined to help end, raises a question about who is being asked to bear the costs and who is accountable for them.
- Hinson’s campaign did not respond to Heartland Signal’s request for comment.
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